Bob Feller was born in Van Meter, Iowa on November 3, 1918, hence his nickname, the "Heater from Van Meter." This is because he was a MLB pitcher with a great fastball, and so was also called "Bullet Bob" and "Rapid Robert."
Feller played his entire career - 18 years - for the Cleveland Indians. When he retired he had 266 wins (would have been more, but he enlisted in the Navy right after Pearl Harbor) and 2,581 strikeouts. He pitched three no-hit games and shares the major league record with 12 one-hitters.
And you can learn all this at the Bob Feller Museum, located at 310 Mill Street.
The museum has a lot of material donated by Feller himself - various uniforms, his glove, lots of photographs of him and such stars as Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams.
There's a TV in the museum, unfortunately not turned on when I was there...and apparently it doesn't show games from Feller's era, which I would really have liked to see!
The museum has a gift shop, and there are over a hundred autographed baseballs - from players of all eras - which you can purchase.
The museum is open from April 1 - Sept 30 from 10 - 5. From October 1 through March 31 it is closed on Mondays and its hours are a little shorter.
The official website is http://www.bobfellermuseum.org.
